Signaling apparatus.



W. G. HOFFMAN.

SIGNALING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED OCT.'10, 191a.

Patented Apr. 9, 1918.

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SIGNALING APPARATUS. APPLICATION FILED OCT. 0. 1916.

Patenpe Apr. 9, 1918.

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SIGNALING ArPABA'rUs.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. e, 1918.

Application filed October 10,1916. Serial No. 124,885.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILMOT G. HOFFMAN, a citizen of the United States, residing at San Francisco, in the county of San Francisco and State of California, have invented new and useful Improvements in Signaling Apparatus, of which the following is a specification,

The invention relates to a signaling apparatus, and more particularly to the class of semaphores for use on motor vehicles on the like.

The primary object of the invention is the provision of a semaphore of this char acter wherein vanes are located on opposite sides of the vehicle and are capable of being operated from a common point so as to display either Right, Left or Stop, thereby indicating to traffic the direction of the course of the motor vehicle or whether or not the same is to be brought to a stand-' still, thereby obviating the possibility of collision or damage or injury to movable objects or pedestrians.

Another object of the invention is the provision of a semaphore of this character wherein the construction thereof is novel in form so that signals can be made visi- 'ble for the regulation of traffic, thus minimizing the possibility of collision or injury to pedestrians.

A further object of the invention is the provision of a semaphore of this character which is simple in construction, thoroughly reliable and efficient in operation, strong, durable and inexpensive in manufacture.

Other objects will be in part obvious and in part hereinafter set forth.

The invention accordingly consists in the features of construction, combination of elements and arrangement of parts which will be exemplified in the construction hereinafter described, and the scope of the application of which will be indicated in the appended claim.

In the accompanying drawings:

Figure 1 is a fragmentary perspective view of an automobile showing the semaphore constructed in accordance with the invention applied;

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary top plan View;

Fig. 3 is a horizontal longitudinal sectional view through the operating mechanism for the semaphore;

Fig. 4 is a vertical longitudinal sectional view thereof;

Referring to the drawings in detail,-A

designates a portion of the body of an automobile on which is mounted the semaphore hereinafter fully described. The semaphore comprises a pair of posts B which are of the required height and are located at a convenient point on the body A of the automobile at opposite sides thereof, and upon each post are swingingly mounted semaphore arms or vanes 11 and 12 respectively, which are adapted for movement from vertical to horizontal position or -vice versa; The arm- 10 has printed or otherwise Right either on one face or both faces thereof, the arm 11 being likewise marked with the word Left either on one or both faces thereof, and the arm 12 is similarly marked with the word Stop on one or both faces thereof, and all of these arms are supported upon a single pivot 13 which is suitably mounted in the post at the upper end thereof and are operated singly in the manner presently described. Located within the body A of the automobile at a suitable point in convenient reach of the operator is a housing or casing 14 which has formed in its upper and lower cheeks or walls registering slot 16, and movably mounted within the slots 16 is a pivot 18 which supports an operating lever 19, having mounted therein on opposite sides of the pivot 18 lugs 20 and 21 respectively which loosely engage in elongated loops 22 formed at the inner ends of flexible rods 23, the outer ends of which are formed with hooks 24: for engaging in extensions 25 on the arms 10 and 11. The lever 19 when at neutral points within the housing or casing 14: has its lugs 20 and 21 engaged with the inner ends of the loops 22, which are in the position as shown in full lines in Fig. 3 of the drawings, while on movement of the lever 19 to the left it will actuate two of the rods 23, that is tov say, one only extending laterally to each side of the vehicle, thereby moving one vane only from vere tical to horizontal position at each side of the vehicle and likewise on movement of marked thereon the word the lever 19 to the right beyond the neutral point a semaphore arm will be raised at each side of the vehicle from vertical to horizontal position and the other semaphore arms at the opposite sides thereof which have been previously raised will be automatically lowered.

In other words, when the lever 19 is at a neutral point two of the semaphore arms will be lowered from horizontal to vertical position. Now on moving the lever 19 to the right the rods 23 will be actuated for swinging the arms 10 from vertical to horizontal position, thereby displaying the in dicia or word Right thereon, and upon shifting the lever 19 to the, left beyond neutral point the arms 10 thus raised will be automatically lowered and the arms 11 raised from vertical to horizontal position fordisplaying the word Left thereon.

Pivoted within the housing or casing 14 at opposite sides of the neutral point of location of the lever 19 are right angled levers 2.6, each having connected to one wing thereof a rod 27, the same bingalso connected to the semaphore arm or vane 12., while the remaining or other limbs of said levers, 26 overlap each other and the lever 19 to pro-- trude into the path of the lugs; 20 so that on pulling outwardly upon the lever 19 the said lugs 20 will act upon the overlapped limbs of the levers 26 for efi'ecting the swinging of the semaphore arms 12 from vertical to horizontal position so' that the word Stop thereon will be displayed, thereby indicating that the motor vehicle is to be brought to a standstill.

The casing M is formed with slot 28 in which works the lever 19 when being swung from neutral position either to the right or the left, and in one wall of this slot 28 is cut notches 29 which receive the lever for locking the same in its adjusted position after the manual moving thereof by the operator of the machine.

T 1e lever 19 is cut into to form shoulders 30 which engage with the walls of the notch 29 at the neutral point to hold the said lever 19 against inward movement when having been pulled outwardly to raise the semaphore vane 12 to horizontal; position, It, is of Course understood that the lever 19 works looselyxvithin the slot 28 so that it can be moved into the notches 29 for looking it in adjusted position,

From the foregoing description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, the construction and operation of the the vehicle and having loop ends engaging V the lugs for permitting a single vane to be raised to signaling position on each side of the vehicle when swung to either side of neutral point, a pair of pivoted levers operated on the sliding movement of said first named levers, and connections between the last named levers and the remaining vane forsimultaneously raising saidvane on the slid ng movement of the first n med l e s,

In testimony whereof I affix my signature.

WILMOT G HOFFMAN.

Grantee oi this. patent may he obtained, tor five cents each, by addressing; the fiemmisstansr of Patenta Washington, D. G." 

